Chapter 12
Bruce trudged inside the computer room with a frown and a jar of Mustard in his hand.
“It was in the fridge.” He announced in frustration, the frown deepening on his face as he handed Thor the jar. “Did you check the fridge?”
“Oh, thank you, my love. You are a sweetheart.” Thor grinned at him affectionately, that managed to crack Bruce’s frown, unable to stay mad at his lover for long, much to the amusement of the other occupants of the room.
“Whipped.” Raven coughed with a grin, while Charlie and Sam snickered at Bruce’s reddening face and Thor’s grin.
Their amusement was short lived, because in the next second, an enraged Erik crashed into the room, looking to be in the middle of putting on the super suit Tony made him, and stared at them with wild eyes, that made even Thor take a few steps back cautiously.
“Where did they go? Where the hell did Charles go?” Erik practically yelled at them, rage and panic mixed in his voice.
“I am guessing Charles didn’t tell him he is going with Team A?” Sam asked tentatively, not wanting to say the wrong thing, only to be murdered by a nail or something more humiliating.
“Oh, he did tell me alright. Then fled the room before I even managed to get a word out!” Erik yelled, completely ignoring the fact that he was still healing from a violent concussion.
They all winced at that, but they couldn’t help but admire Charles’ move. The best way to avoid Erik’s reaction is to take him by surprise, then flee the room. Of course, that means they were the ones who had to deal with Erik’s violent reaction to his husband going on a dangerous mission without him.
“Tell me where did they go. I need to get to them.” He demanded again, as he finished with the last buckles of his suit.
“What? Are you crazy? You are injured, Erik. You are not going anywhere.” Raven stared at her brother-in-law indignantly.
“I don’t care! I need to go to him!”
“Erik, you can’t fight like this.” Bruce tried to reason with him as calmly as possible, like he was dealing with an angry bear. “He is not alone. You trust him with every single person on that team, well, probably not Clint, but still, they will all look out for him and he is not exactly fragile or an invalid anymore. He even saved your life many times now.”
“Charles can’t even run properly yet! Standing for too long makes him pant like he just ran a mile! Not to mention the fact that he doesn’t fight and refuse to carry any kind of weapon. He shouldn’t be there without me!” Erik was seriously getting more stressed and frustrated, that pain was itched on his face from the obvious headache he was getting.
“Okay, calm down. We will check on them.” Sam tried to reassure the stressed mutant and turned to Charlie. “Any word from the team?”
“No, the moment they entered the shipping depot, they became radio silent.” Charlie reported grimly, as she checked again for any sign of the team.
“Would a sandwich calm you down, my friend?” Thor asked Erik carefully, while holding out the jar of mustard. “I got mustard!”
They had to physically stop Erik from throwing a computer screen at Thor’s face.
***
Sam Wilson was walking down the corridor, a deep, distracted frown on his face that he had from the moment Bucky had left the tower with Team A.
He had a bad feeling about that mission that he couldn’t shake, and his lover completely brushed it off when he mentioned it. Claiming that he won’t be alone there, so it would be fine.
That didn’t help easing Sam in the slightest, but he kept his mouth shut.
In his distraction he didn’t notice the black figure standing in the middle of the corridor, until he was right in front of them.
He stopped dead as he stared at the masked, black figure, standing in front of him confidently like he owns the building.
“Oh, God.” Sam whispered with wide eyes, as he stared at what could only be Dark Dean himself.
“Guess again.” the distorted voice retorted, as he stepped towards him.
Sam knew he had no chance in defeating that man on his own, so he did the only thing he could.
He turned and sprinted down the corridor. The dark king following him with slow, sure steps, like a predator.
Wilson ran as fast as he could until he reached the alarm, and pressed the big button hard, happy to hear the alarm voice sounding through the tower.
The moment he looked up; he saw the black king in front of him.
Before he tried to move, his face was slammed hard against the wall.
Then everything went black for him.
***
Meanwhile, in the shipping depot, the fight was still going on strong.
Castiel and Steve, back to back, fighting the seemingly endless black army, while at the same time, fending off their evil counterparts.
Natasha was moving around lightly, bringing down every soldier that came her way. When a soldier tried to sneak behind to stab her in the back, he was shot down by Bucky, who never stopped shooting around with his gun, saving himself and the rest of his team.
Around the room, Tony and his evil doppelganger were shooting at each other viciously without either of them backing down, completely unaware of the damage happening around them from their violent fight.
Clint ran out of arrows at some point and had to hand fight the soldiers for the rest of the fight, Dean having his back as he kept shooting his guns at the soldiers before they were able to shoot back.
Charles was nowhere to be seen, and that both worried and comforted them.
While Dean shot down three soldiers, and stabbed two that managed to get close to him with his knife, he turned around only to find himself face to face with evil Castiel, who immediately punched him hard in the chest. And sent him flying into huge wooden crates that were on fire.
***
After the alarm sounded in the computer room, they all stared frozen at the screen that showed a black, masked king walking in the corridors of their home, unable to believe that he managed to get pass their security percussions.
“How the hell did he get inside the tower unnoticed?!” Charlie shouted the question they were all thinking.
Immediately, Erik let go of his anger and straightened up sternly.
“Raven, take your girlfriend and hide.” He ordered in a firm voice that showed no negotiation that all Raven could do was to nod at him, taking Charlie’s hand and rush out of the room. “Winchester, go suit up. Banner, don’t you dare to Hulk out no matter what happens. Thor, follow me.”
With that, he turned and left the room. Completely taking charge, while effectively ignoring his still bandaged head.
***
Dean felt pain shooting sharply from his chest and throughout his entire body, as he tried to gather in his surroundings again.
He opened his eyes and watched helplessly as his team still fought with all they had. Saw Tony hitting a column hard enough it broke down, making him hit the ground. Dark Steve engaging with both Steve and Castiel at the same time, Clint and Bucky fighting with black soldiers.
No sign of Dark Dean.
In the middle of the chaos surrounding him, his eyes landed on Natasha, who was fighting Dark Castiel of all people and obviously losing. The dark angel slammed her against a column hard, a hand wrapped around her throat and started to choke the life out of her, not fazed by her struggling.
He moved to the side, spit out blood from his mouth, before pulling out a special gun from his belt, then moved to his knees and shot the angel killing bullet at the dark angel.
But Dark Castiel immediately shot out a hand and caught the bullet midair, before it even touched him.
The dark angel turned slowly towards Dean, throwing Natasha to the side. He threw the bullet to the floor and raised a hand towards Dean.
“Burn.” He growled in a distorted voice from behind his mask.
Before Dean could move, or understand what’s happening, his Castiel was suddenly there, standing in front of Dean and shooting his grace at his dark self, sending him flying away to hit a wall.
***
Dark Dean made his way towards the communal room in the penthouse and stopped in its middle to look around.
It was too easy. Surely, they were aware of his presence by now.
They will attack. He was sure of it.
The moment he thought that, a dozen knives from the kitchen floated in the air and was thrown at him all at once.
He moved quickly, flipping away gracefully, managing to dodge every single knife. Then every metallic thing in the room floated as well, as Erik appeared from the corner of the room with an angry, determined look on his face.
“It’s you.” The king observed calmly, removing the mask from around his head, as he looked Erik over. “I forgot you even existed.”
“I gathered that from your first attack.” Erik retorted as he stepped towards him, his powers still making all the metal in the roam float around him. “Attacking us with metallic bullets and weapons was a big give away you had forgotten about a certain mutant.”
“Honest mistake.” Dark Dean just shrugged, as he trained his eyes at the mutant. “I killed you years ago in my world. You were a pain in my ass and had to get rid of you. It was too long ago, that I completely forgot that you still exist in other worlds. I will be more than happy to kill you in this world too.”
Erik bristled at that and the metal started to vibrate with his increasing anger. “Oh, I won’t be as easy to kill, I can assure you.”
“I doubt that.” Dark Dean scoffed with disdain. “You are softer, weaker in this world. Like all your hero friends.”
Erik growled as he threw all the metal around him at the king, who dodged and flipped easily away from everything thrown at him and shooting them with his explosive arrows, no matter how relentless Erik was with his attacks, the king managed to dodge every single one of them, without grazing him.
In the middle of his increasing frustration, Erik realized too late that the dark king got dangerously close to him. In the next second after his discovery, he found himself kicked in the chest to fall on the floor, with Dark Dean standing over him, with an arrow pointed at him.
Maybe he wasn’t in a shape to fight after all.
“Just as easy as in my world.” Dark Dean stated with a cold as ice look.
“You are forgetting something.” Erik grinned suddenly, before sending the microwave from the kitchen to hit the man above him in the face hard enough, that he stumbled back. “I am not alone.”
Dark Dean gathered his surroundings fast and looked around him, only to see Sam, Rhodey, Thor, Logan, Bruce and Hank all surrounding him, ready to attack.
“Didn’t think this through, did you?” Logan smirked mockingly, as he let out his claws. Sam and Bruce pointed their guns at the king, while Rhodey, Thor and Hank stepped forward, ready to attack. “Just you, against all of us.”
“I don’t need to think to kill you.” Dark Dean just shrugged, as he stared at all of them coolly. “Come on, anyone here wants to be a hero?”
***
Steve was too engrossed in fighting off four soldiers and his doppelganger, that he didn’t notice the Dark Iron Man, who appeared from seemingly nowhere, shooting him in the chest with a hard repulsor beam, that sent him flying across the room.
Only to be caught by his husband midair, before he managed to hit a wall or one of the many columns in the large space.
“Thanks, sweetheart.” He let out from between his pained groans, as he felt the pain in his chest.
“You alright?” came Tony’s concerned voice from behind his helmet, seeming to be reluctant from putting him down.
“I am fine. Don’t worry. Just let me down before that bastard you decide to shoot us in midair.”
***
Dark Dean was relentless. He was a monster trapped inside a human body.
He was moving ten times faster than every single one in the room, managing to dodge their attacks, while he landed his own vicious attacks on them.
He destroyed the arc reactor powering Rhodey’s suit, rendering it useless and managing to shoot an exploding arrow at his helmet, that was hard enough to knock him out cold.
While dodging Erik’s continuous flying attacks, he managed to knock out Hank easily, then shooting an arrow at Erik, who stopped it midair, but still exploded in his face hard enough it sent him flying to a wall.
He bested Thor in the fight, avoiding all his relentless attacks with his hammer, while avoiding Sam’s bullets and knocking out Logan.
Then Thor found himself thrown hard across the room to hit Bruce hard, sending both of them to the floor, unconscious.
Before Sam could comprehend what just happened, he found himself face to face with the dark doppelganger of his brother.
“What are you?” Sam whispered with wide eyes, not believing that a single man managed to defeat both the Avengers and the X-Men.
“I am the king.” He answered firmly, before hitting Sam in the head with his bow, making him crash to the floor like a sack of potatoes.
Soon, he was the only one standing in the room, observing the bodies of the heroes surrounding him on the floor.
***
Finally, after what felt like forever, they brought down the last soldier of the black army that was attacking them.
Team A stood surrounded by the fallen bodies, watching the only three remaining figures, staring at them silently.
Soon, they heard heavy footsteps approaching them from somewhere, accompanied by the protesting yells of a familiar voice.
“What the hell is that?” Dean and Bucky exclaimed as they saw an ugly looking robot, dragging a struggling Charles by the arm, who had a weird looking glowing collar around his neck.
“Holy shit, they got their own Ultron!” Tony announced in pure horror as he saw the familiar robot, squeezing Charles arm harshly, ignoring his pained cries.
“Look what I found trying to hack into our systems.” Ultron said viciously, as he shook Charles harshly.
“This is just keeps getting worse.” Steve murmured with wide, horrified eyes at the turn of events.
Dark Tony landed next to Ultron, taking Charles harshly from the robot.
“Ultron, bring them down.” He ordered firmly, tightening his grip on the telepath when he tried to struggle.
“As you wish, Master.” Ultron said in delight, then shoot a strong beam of energy from his chest, that hit the startled Castiel hard enough it threw him back to hit the floor.
“Cas!” Dean screamed in panic, but before he could even move towards his husband, Ultron moved with a speed so high, that he wasn’t seen, knocking them all of their feet and Dean found himself flying before hitting the floor hard.
He raised his head painfully, only to see his friends sprawled on the floor unconscious, while Dark Castiel was approaching him.
“I hate to do that to that handsome face, but-“ Dark Castiel mocked, before kicking him hard in the face, making him lose consciousness immediately.
***
Steve flinched awake, only to find himself and his friends chained to a large crate, with the glowing collars around their necks.
“Is everyone alright?” He asked in a groan as he felt his body protesting in pain. He felt weak. Drained. Unable to hold himself upright.
The collar was making him weak. All of them apparently.
“We are gonna have to work on your definition of alright, Steve.” Came Natasha’s bitter replay, while Tony just grunted in pain, who Steve noticed, had lost his suit.
“Cas, you good?” Dean asked in concern, trying to look at his husband.
“Yes, I am as fine as I could be.” Castiel muttered with bitterness, as they all struggled to their feet.
“Where is Charles?” Clint asked with a frown as they all looked around for the telepath.
They heard slow clapping from behind them. They turned to see Dark Tony clapping slowly with a grin as he approached them, with Dark Steve and Castiel trailing behind them, the latter wearing a large smirk and the former dragging Charles harshly.
“Well, here we are.” Dark Tony said in a joyful voice as they came in front of them. “This is so fun for me. Not so much for you.” He then turned to Charles, who was glaring up at him from his place in Dark Steve’s harsh arms. “Thank you, by the way, for bringing Xavier. I really missed looking at that stubborn, pretty face.” Dark Tony grinned, as he gripped Charles’ face in his hand to make him meet his eyes.
“Get your hands off of him, you sick bastard!” Tony yelled, as they all struggled against their chains to reach the telepath.
“Let go of me.” Charles growled warningly, as he glared hard at the man.
“You know, with a click of my fingers, I can make Ultron thrust his hand into your spine and crush the chip that makes you walk around annoyingly right now.” Dark Tony whispered coldly, making the team tense up in panic, while Charles just stared at him unflinchingly. “But it won’t be fun to play with a paralyzed heap. You can’t do much either way anyway as I kill your friends.”
With a nod to the dark captain, Charles was shoved harshly towards his friends, who immediately moved to catch him with their bodies before he hit the floor.
“Enough, Stark.” Came Dark Castiel’s strong voice.
“You might want to listen to him.” Natasha smirked at Dark Tony. “We know if you wanted to kill us, you wouldn’t have put these dog collars on us first.”
“I guess now I know what it feels to hate myself.” Castiel muttered, as he stared at his dark self.
“Welcome to my world.” Tony growled, grimacing in disgust at his grinning doppelganger.
“Well done.” Came Dark Dean’s voice as he entered the room, managing to make all their focus on him as he approached.
“It wasn’t a problem.” Dark Castiel turned to him with a smug smile, that soon turned to a pained grimace as his legs suddenly gave out from under him and hit the floor, breathing heavily, while clutching his chest in pain.
Dark Dean immediately kneeled down in front of him, with a strange look of concern that looked out of place on his cold face. Dark Tony eyed the dark angel carefully, but didn’t get any closer.
Steve and Castiel exchanged a look, while the others kept staring at the scene in confusion.
“The pain.” Dark Castiel let out from between his pained pants. “I don’t know how much longer I can bare it.”
“It’s alright. It’s all going to be alright now.” Dark Dean said with an unsettling smile on his face. “You are going to be fine, because we found him. We found him, and now we have him.”
With that they both looked up to stare directly at Castiel, who frowned at their look, while the others got nervous as they unconsciously moved closer to the angel to shelter him from their looks.
“Very soon, this nightmare will be over,” Dark Dean whispered, as he turned again to the dark angel. “And I will take you home. So, stand tall.”
Dark Castiel took a deep breath, before nodding, as he got back to his feet slowly with the king’s steady hand on his arm.
“The Tower is secured.” Dark Dean reported, as he nodded towards Dark Tony.
“The Tower?!” Tony exclaimed in horror. Their eyes widened in panic. “You attacked the Tower?!”
“You son of a bitch!” Dean yelled as he struggled against his chains violently. “If you hurt our friends I-“
“I did hurt your friends.” Dark Dean interrupted matter of factly, like it was the most normal thing to do, as he stepped towards them with an emotionless face. “I really enjoyed hurting your friends.”
Dean bristled in pure rage, but was held back by Castiel and Bucky pulling at his shirt from behind to stop him from launching on his doppelganger.
“Are they alive?” Steve asked steadily, as he stared unflinchingly at the king.
“Yes, they are. For now.” Dark Dean answered as he turned to the captain, a look of disdain crossing his face. “We need your Castiel’s cooperation. Well, we don’t need it. It would be preferable.” He side eyed the angel while Dark Castiel’s eyes were zeroing on Castiel, almost greedily. “But for the time being, you are more valuable as leverage.”
“What do you need Castiel for?” Natasha asked in confusion, while Dean tried desperately to cover the angel’s body behind his own.
“To save my life.” Dark Castiel answered bluntly as he trailed his eyes towards Natasha, before turning back to stare at Castiel. “That’s your little mission statement, isn’t it? Help people, save lives. Well, now is your chance to do it without screwing anything up.”
“The General is dying.” Dark Tony announced bluntly as well, looking bored.
The heroes froze for a second as they eyed the dark angel carefully.
“Your blood.” Tony murmured with a frown. “You’ve been exposed to too much solar radiation.”
“Yes. Like Icarus, I flew too close to the sun.” Dark Castiel confirmed with a bitter smile. “I am working with a stolen Archangel’s grace. Mine was ripped from me long ago, when they kicked me out of heaven. I had to survive on stolen grace, until I stumbled on Raphael and ripped his grace from him.”
“We are not made for Archangel’s grace.” Castiel murmured with a frown. “It took a toll on your body. It absorbed all kind of energy from around you. Now, the solar radiation is killing your body and you can’t rip the grace out or leave the vessel. All those options will kill you. And if you leave yourself like that, you will explode like a supernova, maybe destroying a country in the process.”
“Precisely.” The dark angel’s lips pulled into a tight line, as Castiel bluntly outed his situation.
“But we can save him. We are going to save him.” Dark Dean stated confidently, without an ounce of doubt in his voice. “All he needs is a new heart. And, luckily, in this world, we found the perfect donor.” He landed his eyes on Castiel, who met his eyes unflinchingly.
“You stay the hell away from him!” Dean yelled in pure rage, as he and Bucky stepped in front of Castiel protectively.
“You are not taking anything from him.” Steve growled, moving closer to the protective shell surrounding the angel.
“Such loyalty.” Dark Castiel scoffed at the scene. “How sweet.”
“That’s why you stole the prism?” Charles asked with a raised eyebrow.
“So, you could stabilize both angels enough to cut into them without your angel exploding to bits and killing us all?” Tony completed Charles’ line of thought.
“Eloquent. And observant.” Dark Tony mocked with a smirk.
“I am going to kill you.” Dean growled as he stepped closer to his dark self. “I will not stop until I see you dead in front of me!”
“No, you won’t do it. You are weak.” Dark Dean shrugged with a disdainful look on his face. “And all of you choose the high road. You are heroes.” He said the last part like it was a curse. He then turned to Dark Tony and gave him a nod, before leaving the room.
“Ultron.” Dark Tony’s voice hollered, as he turned to the robot. “You know what to do.”
“Yes, master.” The smart robot replied obediently, before turning towards the chained heroes, then released a strong burst of energy from his chest towards them.
***
“Man, I thought we were gonne die.”
Charlie whispered, as she and Raven moved in a corridor carefully. “If I had a dime for every time I thought that, I would be so fucking rich right now.”
“It was Dean, but it wasn’t Dean.” Raven murmured, looking distracted.
“It was Dean in the high castle.”
“I just mean, there is so much out there for us to be afraid of.” Raven stopped moving as she turned to Charlie looking serious. “Multiple earths, aliens, demons, evil doppelgangers. I mean what else could be coming?”
“What’s your point? Are you deliberately trying to freak me out?” Charlie whispered frantically.
“No, Charlie, what I am trying to say is-“ she gripped Charlie’s shoulders tightly as she looked at her straight in the eyes. Lately, she tended to stay in her blue form more often than not, feeling confident to be in her natural form around her family. “-I love you. I really, really do. Having you by my side, is what makes me able to sleep at night while I think about all this.”
Charlie stared at her with wide eyes, before a small smile crossed her lips.
“Strange timing to say those words for the first time.” Charlie murmured softly. “I lov-“
“Shh, shut up.”
“What? I was just tryi-“
“No, shut up.” Raven whispered frantically, as she seemed to be listening for something.
She gripped Charlie’s arm tightly and they moved slowly down the corridor.
Only to flinch back fast when they caught a glimpse of a black figure.
“We are not alone.” Raven whispered nervously, as they both continued down the corridor, until they reached the entrance of the dungeon Tony build.
Only to see black soldiers carrying the bodies of their friends and family and throwing them inside the glass cells.
Raven and Charlie exchanged a wide-eyed look.
“Stalag Avengers Tower.” Charlie murmured frantically, as they both didn’t know what to do.
***
Team A heard dogs barking and multiple voices shouting around them, as they woke up from the hard ground they were laying on.
They moved carefully, noticing that they were surrounded by people dressed like prisoners with glowing collars around their necks as well.
“Cas!” Dean choked out, as he noticed that the angel was absent. “Where’s Cas? They are going to kill him!”
“Oh, God, they took Steve too!” Tony exclaimed in panic, when he realized his husband was messing as well.
“It’s okay! Both of you calm down! We are going to get them back.” Natasha tried to reassure them as they got back to their feet. Their wrests were still chained and the glowing collars still around their necks.
“We need to figure out where we are first.” Clint muttered as he looked around.
“Yeah, about that.” Bucky murmured with widening eyes. “Guys, I am pretty sure we are in a Concentration Camp!”
They were in a large yard, surrounded by large wire walls that lined with hundreds of black soldiers with loaded guns. Not to mention the prisoners around them.
“I don’t think this is our world.” Charles said with wide eyes as he gazed at their surroundings.
They stared up at the strange looking dark sky and then at the military base surrounding the camp.
“We are in their world.” Tony breathed out the words, they were all afraid to say out loud.
They were no longer in their world.
They were in their doppelgangers’ messed up world.